Tag Archives: Calgary

I was at the Peace Bridge tonight. A couple hundred people crossed it while I was there. Lots of tourists and families taking photos of their “accomplishment” and documenting the bridge. Name me one place in Saskatoon where that happens. It’s infrastructure and a tourist attraction. Even Mark and Oliver thought it was the greatest thing they had ever seen.

There was an open air concert near there and yes, there were cars parking all over the place but there were hundreds of bikes down there. a) Can you imagine the carnage that would happen if you didn’t have bike and pedestrian infrastructure in place to get people downtown. b) How much vibrancy would you lose without it as people said, “I’m not driving downtown?” World class cycling infrastructure means less congestion for those that have to drive.

The Peace Bridge is wide, a lot wider than Saskatoon’s under bridge sidewalks. Wide pedestrian lane and a wide cycling lane one each side. In Saskatoon we talk of pedestrians vs. cyclists but in Calgary their multi-use path are 3x larger than Meewasin or twice as large as the path along 33rd. Cycling infrastructure is more than just protected bike lanes, it means building all sorts of things so cyclists can use it.

The Cycle Track is busier (I took some time to watch it) than I expected. It also isn’t perfect and has some design flaws as it begins and ends but it is being used by a lot of people. I (and others) have always said, “build it and they will come”. It is happening in Calgary.

When I was in Banff, I was shocked by how little parking there is downtown. Only a few spots and then they use parkades. Like in Calgary and even in some malls, it gives you a real time update of how many spots they have left. In Chinook Centre, they even had lights to tell you where there were open spots . Saskatoon could do that kind of stuff but first we would have to invest in some parking garages. I can’t see it happening but it would totally change downtown and give designers so much flexibility into making it into a people centric place again.

In downtown Saskatoon, we have this idea that since we have Meewasin, we don’t need any downtown parks while in Calgary, there is the river and guess what, several amazing downtown squares and parks. One of the most interesting ones was a temporary park put up by where the Telus Sky will be. It’s just a placeholder for a future development but it looks really good and isn’t surface parking. I’m assuming there is a tax incentive for doing this but why can’t Saskatoon do the same thing. Why does everything torn down have to be turned into the Impark Empire.

Banff has a pedestrian bridge. It isn’t even for tourists but locals but it looks great. Think about that, Banff has a bridge for pedestrians.

Speaking of Banff, they integrate cyclists really well despite no protected bike lanes. They are so natural there that you expect bikes (and elk) to be everywhere. Drivers accommodate them. I believe in excellent cycling infrastructure but drivers who respect cyclists goes a long way. I think Saskatoon and SGI could do a lot more to educate people. It would take decades but it could make a big difference.

Does anything think that Saskatoon’s North Commuter Bridge will look anything other than the cheapest design that can be built? Why can’t we have any signature infrastructure at a time when it is increasingly part of the urban fabric?

Saskatoon will never be the next Calgary. There is a boldness and arrogance that has long been a part of Calgary that has always demanded to be seen on the same level as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. It has always punched above it’s weight, even in times of deep recession. Saskatoon doesn’t have that kind of leadership and spirit.

I don’t think that is entirely our fault. There is a different business culture with agriculture, uranium and potash then with oil and natural gas.

Calgary has much higher design standards than Saskatoon. The architecture is better in Calgary in part because they demand it. The result is that the city has incredible design even for things like parkades while Saskatoon has the Sturdy Stone Centre. It’s not just the market that is different, city design standards are higher. If companies want to play in Calgary, they have to pay. Proponents of build cheaply say that the costs are passed on and they are right but the entire wage structure is different in Calgary so it can absorb it. Great cities are expensive, Saskatoon is trying to become one by being cheaper than everywhere else. It isn’t going to work. For this I blame Lorne Calvert who recruited people to come back to Saskatchewan because it was cheaper than everywhere else.

You know, Lorne Calvert probably isn’t responsible but still, it bugged me when he did that then and it still bugs me now. You don’t invite people to come back because of cheap utility and insurance.

Macleod Trail is as ugly as street as I have ever seen anywhere outside of Winnipeg. Luckily Calgary is trying to fix it.

After two days of being up at 4:45 a.m., I feel like I am slacking and sleeping in today. It’s almost 7 a.m.

Today we are heading to Heritage Park. I haven’t been there since I was in Grade 4. Much as stayed the same but a lot has changed. That was so long ago that the school I attended for Grade 4 has closed.

Before we go to Heritage Park, I need to take Mark to Chinook Centre so we can hit up the Apple Store and he can get a new iPod Nano. His died and then I leant him my old iPod Touch which he then dropped. So here we go again. I wonder if he can get an Otter Box for it.

Oliver doesn’t know there is a Lego store in that mall but I can’t see us walking by it and not going in.

After that it is to the park where we will wander around aimlessly and eat homemade food, ride a steam engine, take a cruise on a paddle wheeler, and see how Calgary was once.

I am waiting for the crew to get ready before we head downstairs to grab breakfast and then hit the road to Banff National Park today. We are taking the old highway through Cochrane along a winding road to Canmore. From there we will make a quick detour into Banff for some fresh bread and food before heading to Johnston Canyon where will hike the trail to the second large waterfall. It isn’t so much of a hike then a stroll. It’s also a great place to people watch as there are tourists from all over the globe there and they are fascinated by a lot of things (like squirrels) that we find mundane.

From there we are heading to a picnic area called Sawback where we will have a quick picnic lunch, then proceed up the Bow Valley Parkway until we get to Lake Louise. Along the way we are checking out a campground that we plan to stay at next year. It looks good online but it’s always nice to see it first hand.

The Cave and Basin National Historic Site is one of my favourite spots on earth. I loved going there as a kid and I can’t wait until I can show Wendy, Mark, and Oliver the site. As for the Chateau Lake Louise, it was there that I proposed to Wendy so it will be fun heading back there.

In a couple of minutes, we will be leaving zombie like for a family vacation to Calgary and Banff National Park. My coffee is being made while the car has been loaded up for the trip. The alarm is being set and the dogs are starting to realize they aren’t going. After a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for a cappuccino for Wendy, we’ll be on the road. Hopefully the boys will fall back asleep in the car. Since they are both zombie like right now, that should not be a problem.

We’ve loaded two large duffle bags, four backpacks (for stuff to hike in Banff with), six camera bags (one large bag to carry our gear and one smaller bag each), and a cooler full of drinks and breakfast stuff.

Tobogganing is coming under threat as cities across the U.S. and Canada move to restrict – and in some cases outright ban – the activity.

Saskatoon isn’t on the list of cities considering a sledding ban, but the beloved winter pastime remains a dangerous one, say officials.

“Every year we see a lot of these types of injuries,” said MD Ambulance spokesperson Troy Davies, who confirmed that paramedics were called to three sledding incidents this past weekend.

The three most common types of injuries stemming from sledding are typically concussions, dislocated knees and twisted ankles, said Davies.

“With the rate of speed that people can get nowadays it’s become fairly common for us to deal with these types of calls,” he said.

Councillor Mairin Loewen said a sledding ban is unlikely. “This isn’t something that I would entertain,” said Loewen. “There’s typically some risk associated with most winter activities, but this isn’t anything that I’ve heard about.”

Dubuque, Iowa, is set to ban toboggans in nearly all its 50 parks. Other cities, including Des Moines, Iowa; Montville, New Jersey;

Lincoln, Nebraska; and Columbia City, Indiana, are following suit by restricting certain runs or posting signs warning people away.

When I was 8, I was sledding in a private park in the Canyon Meadows neighbourhood in Calgary. Â It was a long and steep hill which has a slight curve in it. Â It was well lit at night by light standards that were on the top of the bowl. Â I was sledding on one of the circular saucers which always made you go down backwards. Â

As I was descending this steep and icy hillâ€¦ backward, I rose up the side of the hill and hit one of the light standards hard and almost straight on with my spine.

I hit the light standard just off centre so I managed to take the full impact but still keep going up over the top of the bowl and back down the other side.

I remember laying on my back and kind of doing a medical version of the song, â€œDo the hokey, pokeyâ€.

â€œPut your left foot inâ€

Okay, that is working

â€œTake your left foot outâ€

So that foot isnâ€™t broken.

â€œShake it all aboutâ€

Now that hurts a bit.

I was fine but had a bruise going from my one butt cheek to my shoulder.

After some adults confirmed that I was only slightly concussed, I was back on the slope. Â Since my neighbourhood didnâ€™t have a private park (or a toboggan hill) anything less than a collapsed lung and I would have fought to stay on that hill.

My point is that Councillor Mairin Loewen is completely right. Â All of us knew there was considerable risk of putting small children on fast devices on a hard service with no safety devices. Â We did it any ways and our parents encouraged it.

It is natures way of deciding who can live on the prairies and who has to move to the west coast.

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This is a weblog about urban issues, technology, & culture published by Jordon Cooper since 2001. You can read about me and the site here and if you are looking for one of my columns in The StarPhoenix, you can find them here.